factory teams and to attract
new manufacturers, have now
gone too far. There's a real fear
that the floundering Japanese
duo will lose interest in getting
serially beaten and will follow
Suzuki into MotoGP oblivion,
leaving a semblance of a one-
make series, with wall-to-wall
Ducatis. An oblivion of a differ
-
ent kind.
Implausible? Not necessarily.
The two racing
giants are really
struggling, entirely because of
Dorna's initiative some 20 years
ago.
Back then, Dorna cracked
the whip, threatening to end
prototype grand prix racing
altogether. The threat of switch
-
ing to production-based racing
was underlined by the introduc-
tion of the unloved hotted-up
proddie-bike
CRTs, circulating at
the back.
That certainly got the facto
-
ries' (if not the fans') attention,
who
were then prepared to ac-
cept a crescendo of cost-cutting
dumbing-down
rules. Starting
with fuel limits and control tires,
increasingly restrictive tech regs
cut factory-team advantages
and nullified big-budget bullying.
The practice went further year
on year—control electronic hard
-
ware preceded control software,
engine numbers
were restricted,
and engine and more recently
aerodynamic developments
were frozen during the season.
Engines were physically sealed
before the first race of the year.
Cost curbs pandered to
H
ow the mighty have fallen.
This is the only pos-
sible interpretation of the
news that Dorna is considering
making concessions available
to Honda and Yamaha. "Con-
cessions" being exceptions to
restrictive regulations, intended
to
give weaker competitors a
chance to catch up. And "weak-
er competitors" now being the
long-standing
motorcycle grand
prix giants, who are currently
getting a good kicking from
Ducati in particular and Europe
in general.
This smacks of desperation
on both sides. Not only are
the factories faltering, so too
Dorna, at least potentially. The
leveling-down rules, introduced
to hamstring the all-dominant
P118
CN II IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
A LEG-UP
FOR MOTOGP'S
STRUGGLING
GIANTS
